The present invention relates to an electrical connector equipped with a lever.
As regards connectors which require a substantial mating force, for example when it is desired to mate male and female connectors with 20 contacts or more, connectors are known which have been provided with a lever in order to obtain the substantial mating force.
In a conventional connector provided with a lever, the lever is provided with freedom to turn on the outer wall of a male housing provided with a hood. When the female housing is inserted inside the hood and the lever is turned, an engagement part provided on the lever engages with the female housing, thereby urging the female housing in the coupling direction, and bringing the male and the female connector housings into a fully coupled state. Such a conventional connector provided with a lever requires two operations, that of inserting the female connector housing into the hood to achieve the semi-coupled state, and that of operating the lever to draw the connectors together. It occasionally happens that the operator forgets to turn the lever when coupling the male and the female connector housings, and on such occasions the male and the female connector housings may remain in the semi-coupled state.
Japanese Patent Kokai Hei 1-92781 discloses an invention in which such a semi-coupled state is detected in a connector provided with a lever. In this document, a turning piece, acting as a detector on the side which makes contact with an attachment surface when the connector is attached to an attachment bracket, is provided with freedom to turn on one of the connector housings. This turning piece is turned by the attachment surface to the position following the side surface of the other connector housing when the connector is in the fully coupled state, being attached in such a way as not to impede the attachment of the connector, and an engagement projection formed at its end engages with a lock piece provided on one of the connector housings, in such a way that the two connector housings are mated. The construction is such that, in the semi-coupled state, the turning piece comes into contact with the side surface of the other connector housing and is impeded from turning, and it is therefore not able to turn as far as the position following the side surface of the other connector housing described above. Thus, it is arranged in such a way that the connector can be attached to the attachment bracket only in the fully coupled state, and the semi-coupled state can be detected.
However, in such a conventional connector in which the semi-coupled state is detected, the semi-coupled state is first discovered on attempting the operation of attaching the connector to the object to which it is to be attached, and the coupling operation has to be carried out again.
Furthermore, because the configuration is such that the detector (turning piece) which detects the semi-coupled state makes the detection by coming into contact with the attachment surface of the object to which the connector is to be attached, the connector has only been able to be attached to a site having such an attachment surface.
The present invention has taken the above-mentioned problems into account, and comprises a connector provided with a lever, which can ensure a fully coupled state even if the connector is in the semi-coupled state when it is being attached to the object to which it is to be attached, and which can even be attached in sites which do not have such attachment surfaces.